Voters in the New Philadelphia City School District rejected a 7.2-mill emergency operating levy by a 2-1 margin in Tuesday's general election.

According to unofficial results from the Tuscarawas County Board of Elections, 3,001 voters — or 66 percent — said no to the levy, while 1,533 — or 33.8 percent — said yes.

"We're disappointed," schools Superintendent Bob Alsept said Tuesday evening. "We'll have to regroup as a board and see how we move forward from here."

The levy would have raised $3 million annually for the school district. Without additional funding, New Philadelphia is facing a predicted $6.5 million operating deficit by 2018.

District Treasurer Steve Sherer had said the projected deficit is the result of cuts in state funding. Over the past two years, the district has lost $1.7 million in revenue from the state. Without the cuts, New Philadelphia could have gone until 2016 or 2017 before it would have needed extra money, he said.

The district now has a $5.1 million carryover balance, which Alsept described as the district's "emergency account." Without new levy dollars, the district would spend all of that carryover amount and incur deficit spending of $6.5 million in 2018, for a total change of $11.6 million.

Passage of the levy would have given the district a $6.9 million carryover into 2018, Sherer said. That amount is about enough to operate New Philadelphia Schools for three months.

Alsept said Tuesday that he had no idea what the final vote would be.

"It was hard to get a feeling one way or another," he said. "We didn't get a lot of feedback one way or another."

As for the future, the superintendent said, "We're at school tomorrow. We'll get together as a board and look to the future. Whether we will come up with a list of possible cuts or ask for more revenue, I can't say now. We'll look at all the options."